Classical, long-lived Riesling from the south-facing slopes centred between Rudesheim and Wiesbaden. Perfumed and floral on the nose, with wonderful precision in the mouth.
Asbach-Kretschmar (Oestrich-Winkel) ORGANIC
Rudesheim is on the western edge of the south-facing Rheingau, where the Rhine then makes a sharp turn north. There’s a statue of Germania (not unlike Britannia) at the top of the hill, the car ferry from Bingen below. A cable car crosses the vines. We had long been searching for a great Rudesheim Riesling and it was a BIO-vintner on another river, Rudi Trossen from the Mosel, who gave us the tip. Anglophiles Peter and Tania Kreuzberger lovingly tend their handful of rows in Rudesheim, Oestrich-Winkel and Hattenheim. The wines are perfect Rheingau; oily, almost unctuous Baroque perfume emerges as the wine warms up. Classical structure. Enjoy the thrilling rollercoaster ride of New Wave dry German Riesling!
JB Becker (Walluf) ORGANIC
Like something out of Laurel and Hardy, Maria Becker sloshed some Riesling out of the window anointing a surprised passer-by – and so the crazy world of the Beckers continued to unfold around us. They were the best double-act we encountered in Germany, complete with an excitable dog and the moustachioed brother Hans-Josef, the winemaker who looks suspiciously like a circus ringmaster – it wouldn’t entirely surprise us if he really was.
They were the first in the world to use the cutting-edge glass closure, and the wines are made in the traditional way, fermented in huge old creaking Fuders with a long, slow fermentation. The wines are poised and elegant, the trockens are very lean. The brother and sister are a great team, and Maria even managed to dig out even more of the fruity Steinmacher Spatlese 1976 that we drank with enormous enjoyment at Zum Krug!
Chat Sauvage (Johannisberg)
We were having dinner at Zum Krug in Hattenheim in the Rheingau one Wednesday evening, when Josef Laufer Junior (Zum Krug’s excellent chef) flashed a bottle in front of us that looked suspiciously like Burgundy. “You really have to try this!” he said. Try it we did and next day we were rattling the gates of Chat Sauvage in Johannisberg. Gunter Schulz is from Hamburg, made his fortune in the construction trade and developed a bit of a Burgundy habit. An expensive DRC type habit (Domaine de la Romanee Conti, the most sought-after Burgundy there is). Given that DRC isn’t for sale and given that he didn’t want to leave Germany, he set up 27 year-old winemaker Michel Stadter with some excellent old vines and a brief for uncompromising quality. Unfiltered and unfined, we were startled by the style and polish of these Pinots from a region overwhelmingly known for its Riesling.
Flick (Wicker)
Hardly anyone has heard of the village of Wicker. It is part of the other bit of the Rheingau next to Hochheim where the River Main meets the Rhine and from whose slopes you can watch the planes on final approach to Frankfurt airport. Although wine has been in the Flick family since 1775, it is only now, through the rising fortune of Reiner and his wife Kirsten, that Wicker is being put on the map.They live in a renovated 13th century mill and work their 14ha of vines – scattered across 102 seperate parcels in two villages. Jewels in their crown are the Wickerer Monchsgewann and the Hochheimer Holle where Reiner spends much of his time working with the soil, trying to bring it alive. The wines have blasted their way onto the German wine scene over the past half decade. We found modern but stately wines here – sometimes with savoury herbal notes, such as thyme or lavender. Supercharged Rheingau, classical lines but definitely supercharged.
Reiner has unfathomable energy; running his winery, making wine, running events in their venue down the road, barbecuing for 300 guests, hunting in the forests near Frankfurt, making wild boar sausages, experimenting with new grape varieties (Cabernet Blanc?!), making barrels from wood felled from his own land, building a new cellar with a vaulted ceiling, putting in a light display to demonstrate the effect of different coloured light on the taste of wine…and so on.
Every time we visit Reiner always has a new project. We are really excited that he has managed to rent the vines in a small vineyard in Hochheim called Konigin Victoria Berg (Queen Victoria’s hill). This was Queen Victoria’s favourite wine and where the name Hock comes from (the British struggled to pronounce Hochheim so eventually referred to all Rhine wine as Hock). She was so taken with the wine that, on a visit to Germany, she asked to see it. She observed it from her carriage and, shortly after, the vineyard was named after her and a monument was built to commemorate the visit. It is great news that a grower of Reiner’s quality is now making wine from this legendary parcel.
Eva Fricke (Kiedrich)
Our eccentric, Berlin-based, journalist mate Stuart Pigott has often tipped us on hot new growers. “Stuart here. I must tell you about something really special. Eva Fricke. She’s the winemaker at Leitz and has been doing her own thing on the side. I told her she should charge double what everyone else is charging. ” Thanks, Stuart. Very helpful! Roll forward a few weeks and we’re back in Germany having dinner with Erni Loosen. Yes. La-di-dah. He asks who we’re seeing and I mention Eva Fricke. “Oh, I know Eva.” What I’d neglected to say was that we hadn’t actually made the call yet. Next day we get a call from Eva, who is in London showing Leitz wines. “Eva here. I’m sorry I didn’t realise we had a meeting” (well we didn’t, yet) “I just wanted to make sure I would be there to meet you.” The jungle wire works again. Fantastic. You only have to think it and say it out loud, even if it’s not actually to the right person, and lo-and-behold it happens! If only that was always the case. So the following evening, the striking, blue-eyed woman from Bremen shows up at Zum Krug for dinner with her two bottles. “I have a half hectare across two red slate terraces at Lorch. I was looking for a special soil. I was looking for slate, which is hard to find on the Rheingau.” And the wine is delicious. Intense, but not showy.
Wind forward three years and Eva has finally given up her 24/7 job at Leitz to concentrate on her own wines.
Himmel (Hochheim) ORGANIC under conversion
David and Alex were in Germany a couple of weeks ago and, thanks to a tip from Angela Kuhn, found an upcoming grower called Himmel in Hochheim. Hochheim Riesling was Queen Victoria’s favourite wine – and where the word “Hock” comes from, back when German wines were the most expensive in the world. Himmel is German for heaven, and yes, we think Annette and Emmerich Himmel’s dry Rieslings are heavenly. As you’d expect from the Rheingau, it’s a geological extravaganza in your mouth. Perfumed, blackcurrant leaf, petrol, peach and spice, surging with racy freshness.
Kloster Eberbach (Eltville-Eberbach)
The State of Hessen’s Domain, formerly a cloister until Napoleon booted the nuns out and “gifted” it to the nation. We have long been obsessed with one of their most prestigious walled vineyards, a monopole (they own it solely) called Steinberg (stone hill). Dieter Greiner and his team at Kloster Eberbach have made enormous efforts and this legendary vineyard is again producing wines to match its reputation from a century ago.
Peter-Jakob Kuhn (Oestrich) BIODYNAMIC
Some of the most startling wines we have ever tasted come from Peter-Jakob Kuhn from Oestrich in the heart of the Rheingau – a magnificent south-facing slope overlooking the Rhine near Wiesbaden, west of Frankfurt. Peter-Jakob was certified organic in 2004 and then went the whole way to biodynamic, the extreme end of organic viticulture, where decisions are made according to the Lunar Calendar. Biodynamic viticulture is based on the teachings of Maria Thun, the gnarly 80-something guru in middle Germany, who in turn is a disciple of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher who laid out his mission statement for an alternative agriculture in the 1920s. An increasing number of winemakers have switched to biodynamism. The whole family is involved and in-tune. His wife Angela, daughter Sandra and son Peter. It’s an impressive winery, totally committed and fearless. They have been experimenting with oak, ridiculously long lees contact (Schlehdorn) and have even made wine in two amphoras they bought in Spain. Watch out for the mad, haunting aromas of the wild yeasts. Exotic, oily, peppery, savoury – almost salty.
Langwerth von Simmern (Stadt Eltville)
Crazy label, crazy wine! Well, crazily fabulous anyway. The high-class von Simmerns may have been going since 1464 but their wines are bang up to date with their oily, almost unctuous Baroque perfume and limey, minerally dry finish; just the way we like it.
Fred Prinz (Hallgarten)
Until recently Fred worked for the large and well-known State Domain at Kloster Eberbach in Stadt Eltville. He started as Sales Director and then became responsible for the winemaking. He, his wife Sabine and their two children live in a second floor flat in the village of Hallgarten high up on the slopes above the Rhine. You only find evidence of what was his “hobby” in the garage below the flats. Here you will find a few tanks and pruning tools – a true garagiste! He and his wife built up their original 1.5ha of holdings in two vineyards around the village; Schonhell (generally used for the dry styles) and Jungfer (for the fruity, sweeter styles). The exception in both the 2001 and 2002 vintages is the dry “Erstes Gewachs” (First Growth) which come from Jungfer. Quality is high, yields are low, output tiny.
He green-harvests once or twice a year, stripping out 20-40% on each pass. In the cellar he allows the grapes to cold soak overnight before allowing them to ferment. This, Fred says, boosts the extraction and lowers the acidity. After fermentation he then leaves his wines for 4 months on the lees, adding more layers of complexity. The wines have a wonderful precision and focus – not overblown, just quietly persuasive.
Demand for his wine is so great that he has just given up the day job to turn the hobby into a full time job. Uneconomic with just 1.5 hectares, he needed to find another hectare. He always keeps his ears open while he’s out working in the vines. Gossip and rumour are rife among the vines…who has been approached by who, who’s thinking of selling to who! As a result he has now managed to scoop up a couple more parcels of old vines in his favourite locations, almost doubling his holdings to 3 hectares.
Josef Laufer – Zum Krug (Hattenheim)
In the village of Hattenheim there is a wonderful hotel – Hotel Zum Krug – with a superb restaurant serving traditional German specialities for lunch and dinner, and a more ambitious Michelin-style menu available in the evenings.
Eccentric, bow-tied Josef Laufer is the owner. He is passionate about Rheingau wine and is an authority on the subject. His winelist is staggering : two inches thick with wines only from the region. He also has some vines of his own and makes delicious Sekt. German sparkling wine, although popular on the home market, can sometimes be a bracing, rather harsh experience, but not here. Beautifully made Brut and Extra Brut with bottle fermentation – dry, full of character with layers of flavour, and makes a wonderful change from Champagne.
